Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special Blu-ray Review

I Am My Own Elf

Jeff Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special is the third of the five (to date) specials on
Comedy Central that cemented the reputation of the popular ventriloquist and stand-up as one of
America's most popular comedians working today. Dunham had been selling out clubs and
auditoriums for years, and he had found a niche on TV in the Nineties after appearing on Johnny
Carson's Tonight Show. But it was the Comedy Central broadcasts, and their ancillary sales on
DVD and Blu-ray, that brought him his greatest success. Christmas Special was the most-watched broadcast in Comedy Central's
history up to that time. The DVD and Blu-ray were
released two days later and are a seasonal favorite.
Dunham looks so young that it's hard to believe he's been performing for thirty years (longer, if
you count his high school performances). To watch Dunham at work is to observe the ease of an
entertainer who built his audience gig by gig, often in the face of resistance from a comedy
establishment that doesn't value ventriloquists and a critical establishment that still doesn't "get"
his popular appeal. An old entertainment adage holds that, if half the people love you, you're a
star. More than half the people love Dunham, and many of them attended the taping of Christmas
Special.
For unknown reasons, the Blu-ray was not reviewed at the time of release. We are now rectifying
that omission. (For Martin Liebman's review of Dunham's most recent Comedy Central
broadcast, Jeff Dunham: Minding the Monsters, go here.)

One of the hallmarks of ventriloquism is that the puppets exhibit the bad behavior, while their
human master appears helpless and self-effacing. It's part of the illusion that the puppets have
independent life, and the ventriloquist isn't doing anything to make them move and talk. Dunham
is so good at creating this illusion that, when he tries to do independent standup, he can
sometimes seem detached. An opening routine of Christmas Special provides a different view of
Dunham, because he does it "solo", recounting the tale of his sixteen-year-old daughter's
misadventures buying gas for her first car. Dunham remains very much the passive observer in
this story, not even a witness himself to the event, but a viewer of a videotape taken by his wife,
whom he impersonates, along with his daughter, with the same unerring eye for the defining
gesture that makes his puppetry so effective (unscrewing a gas cap, texting in the back seat,
flipping an "on" switch). Like a ventriloquist pretending not to throw his voice, Dunham only
looks like he's not working, when in fact he's peopling the stage.
Having established a rapport with the family audience (not that he needed to; they're obviously
already fans), Dunham begins bringing out his co-stars. First comes Walter the curmudgeon,
whose greeting to the spectators in the balcony seats is: "Hello up there. Jump!" Though dressed
in a festive red shirt and sweater vest, Walter is definitely not filled with holiday spirit. Other
members of the so-called "suitcase posse" are more amenable. The unexpectedly popular "white
trash trailer park" beer swiller, Bubba J, has been writing a lengthy letter to Santa on his
computer. However, he hasn't been able to mail it, because he can't get the computer through the
mail slot. Bubba J performs the instant country western classic "Roadkill Christmas" to an
enthusiastic response.
Achmed the Dead Terrorist, who is a mere skeleton, because he was incompetent and blew
himself up, loves to go caroling and has even written his own version of a favorite song, which
he has renamed "Jingle Bombs":

Jingle bombs, jingle bombs,
Mine blew up, you see.
Where are all the virgins
That Bin Laden promised me? Oh!
Jingle bombs, jingle bombs,
U.S. soldiers shot me dead.
The only thing that I have left
Is this towel upon my head.

Is it juvenile? Sure. Offensive? No doubt. Funny? I couldn't help laughing. It's that damn puppet.
Achmed is also the mouthpiece for some of Dunham's more off-the-wall improvs or, as the
puppet explains, "This is where Jeff makes up crap just to make Guitar Guy laugh." "Guitar
Guy", whose real name is Brian Haner, tries his best to retain his composure, but there comes a
point where the only party on stage who can keep a straight face is Achmed, because it's painted
on.
A highlight of the evening is the conversation between two of Dunham's oldest characters,
Peanut and José Jalapeño on a Stick. Peanut is a purple-skinned, white-furred, green-tufted
creature of undisclosed species (on YouTube, he calls himself a "woozle") who's pure id. José
Jalapeño is exactly what the name describes and the frequent butt of Peanut's jibes. Watching the
intricate verbal choreography between these two, with their distinctively different voices and
cadences, and Dunham's own interjections, is to be reminded, if one is old enough, of the
dazzling timing of Señor Wences with Johnny and Pedro ("Hello in the box!"). Peanut puts his
own personal stamp on The Night Before Christmas, which Dunham attempts to read, without
much success. ("Fat, drinking and driving, and a furry gay outfit, covered in soot, he's smoking,
and you let him in the house because he said he had something for your kids? What the hell kind
of father are you anyway?")
By the time St. Nick shouts "To all a good night!", Peanut is exhausted and so is the audience.

As it frequently does with video-originated hi-def material, Image Entertainment has released Jeff
Dunham's Very Special Christmas Special in a 1080i presentation encoded with the AVC codec.
However, the 1080i treatment does not seem to have created any noticeable issues. There were
no visible combing artifacts while the image was in motion (although screencaps may reveal
them), and the image did not lack for sharpness or detail. The cheerful holiday lighting, which
has been separately designed for each puppet character, shines with apt saturation, so that the
essential primary colors glow with holiday cheer. Blacks are solid and deep, which is important
for Dunham's preferred stage garb (a contrast with the more garish look of his "cast"). As usual,
Image has cut corners for a BD-25, but the program is sufficiently short, and the extras
sufficiently brief, that compression artifacts are not a problem.

Considering the possibilities, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 for Christmas Special is something of a
disappointment. This may be related to the TV origins of the project. One doesn't expect
Dunham's act to be anywhere but front and center on stage, even when there's musical
accompaniment by Brian Haner's "Guitar Guy". However, with audience reaction so critical a
part of the experience, one could reasonably expect a more involving and immersive use of the
surrounds than one finds in this mix. TV sound designers still seem far too reluctant to use the
rear channels for anything other than the odd sound cue, but that shouldn't be. Standup is entirely
about the relation between the comic and the audience. Why not use the technology of discrete
5.1 sound to capture that relation for accurate reproduction on home video?
In any case, the reproduction on the track is certainly blameless in terms of clarity. Dunham and
his artificial co-stars are clear and intelligible, and Guitar Guy's licks pack the requisite impact.
It should be noted that the track is TV-friendly, and that all the language bleeped for broadcast
remains bleeped here. There seems no good reason why an unbleeped track couldn't have been
included as an option, especially since two separate tracks are available.

At the Show & the T-Shirt Bazookas (1080i; 1.78:1; 1:44): A collection of moments
that didn't make the show: make-up, tech details, members of the Dunham family firing
T-shirts into the audience and viewer reactions as they exit.

One of the pleasures of being a reviewer is that I get to watch programs and films I might not
otherwise make the time to see. In recent years I have stopped watching standup comic
performances, for a variety of reasons, including the passing of some of my idols. As a result, I'd
missed Jeff Dunham's biggest hits to date, of which I now plan to view the entire collection.
Dunham's humor isn't deep and it isn't especially witty, but he belongs to a venerable tradition
of clowning that connects across a broad spectrum and has worked reliably from one era to
another. May it never grow old. Recommended.

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